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Gottfried Michaelsen

German pirate

Field	Value
name	Gottfried Michaelsen
birth_date	c. 1360
birth_place	Wismar, Hanseatic League, present-day Wismar, Germany
death_date	1400 or 20 October 1401 (age 40-41)
death_place	Hamburg, Hanseatic League, Holy Roman Empire, present-day Hamburg, Germany
death_cause	execution by beheading with sword
other_names	Gödeke Michels
occupation	privateer, pirate, privateer ship captain, privateer fleet commander
module	{{Infobox military person	embed=yes
allegiance	Sweden (Kingdom)
branch	independent naval privateers (allies of Kingdom of Denmark)
rank	Captain
commands	Victual Brothers privateer fleet
battles	Denmark-Sweden War
laterwork	}}
spouse	1
relatives	1 brother
website

Dukes of Mecklenburg

Victual Brothers

Hennig Wichmann

Magister Wigbold

Hanseatic League Wars

Gödeke Michels (Low Saxon; died 1402), also known as Gottfried Michaelsen in High German, was a German pirate and one of the leaders of the Likedeeler, a combination of former Vitalienbrüder.

Early life

Career

Together with Klaus Störtebeker, Hennig Wichmann and Magister Wigbold, as well as other leaders of the Likedeeler, he raided shipping in the North and Baltic Sea near the end of the 14th century.

They possessed fast ships, which easily outmaneuvered the ships of the Hanse. Like many of the Likedeeler, Michels was primarily concerned with capturing valuable prizes. However, he disdained cowardice and those surviving crewmen who had not resisted were usually thrown overboard.

Death

Gottfried Michaelsen was eventually captured and executed in the year 1402, shortly after Klaus Störtebeker and crewmen were allegedly beheaded on the Grasbrook in Hamburg.

References

Jörgen Bracker, "Klaus Störtebeker – nur einer von ihnen. Die Geschichte der Vitalienbrüder", in: Störtebeker. 600 Jahre nach seinem Tod, Wilfried Ehbrecht (ed.), Lübeck: Porta-Alba-Verlag, 2001, (=Hansische Studien; vol. 15), .

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1402-deaths 14th-century-births german-pirates people-executed-in-the-holy-roman-empire-by-decapitation executed-german-people 15th-century-executions medieval-pirates

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